


Instincts are unpredictable

by Sergeaaant



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Humor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-23
Updated: 2020-02-23
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22859944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sergeaaant/pseuds/Sergeaaant
Summary: Casey and April suddenly remembered that they're dealing with turtles.
Relationships: Casey Jones/April O'Neil (TMNT)
Kudos: 26





	Instincts are unpredictable

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Instincts are unpredictable](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/561895) by Silver Wind. 



> The fanfic is set after the end of S4 2012, that's why Splinter is not present.

The citizens of The New York City were furious, trying to warm up their hearts, frozen in their chests, with righteous anger addressed to one infamous Lady. And her name was Winter.

Winter itself didn’t really give a damn about all the squeaking people on the sinful Earth. She mercilessly drowned the city in snow, so much so that even Russian tourists whistled and hurried back to their Siberian wildlands at the sight of it all.

Weathermen, sorrowfully trying to disconnect their glasses from nose bridges, the temperature of which has rather quickly leveled with such of the icebergs somewhere in the Arctic Ocean, were swearing on everything holy that they had no idea there could be such severe frosts in New York. 

And, as you know, the cold is treacherous as an old one-eyed fox, so it had no trouble getting into the abode of the young protectors of the city.

This sequence of all these crazy events led to Casey and April suddenly remembering that their friends belonged to the noble genus of turtles. And then the fact that that genus was a member of the anonymous community of reptiles, the majority of which had severe cold intolerance.

But let us start at the beginning.

“Ugh, it’s so cold out here!” Casey, who’d normally consider himself too cool to wear beanies, even had his hood over his headgear this time.

“Tell me about it.” April was blowing some hot air out of her mouth onto her frozen hands trying to warm them up after taking off her soaked mittens. “But we still need to check up on the guys. Maybe they wanna go out but can’t because there’s snow all over the manholes?”

“Hey, I know that Raph is a psycho, but wanting outside in such weather? Good one.”

“We need to make sure they’re okay,” said April digging through the snow to get to the entrance to their friends’ lair. 

Casey took a heavy breath and got down to help her. In the end, he’d sworn to always be there for her even if at that point he had a really strong urge to go back home and lay down in the warm bed with a cup of tasty cocoa.

“He-ey! Anyone alive?” yelled Casey into the empty dark room, usually filled with loud noises: either the brothers arguing about which tv show to watch tonight, or coming up with the “how to get our hands on some pizza” plan.

Suddenly from behind the couch, with the enthusiasm of a creature that hasn’t eaten anything in a week, a head appeared, and nothing could ever say I don’t care better than the expression on the said head. The color of the mask was probably the only thing that let Casey recognize his best friend.

“Raph! What the shell is happening here?!”

Then the head did something that left Casey speechless: trying and failing a few times to focus its blurry vision on the figure of the boy, it abandoned its efforts and went back where it came from.

“Come again?” Casey came up to the couch and, after staring at this wonderful sight - Raph curled up on the couch - for over a minute, kicked him in the side with his boot. And was immediately left speechless for even longer than the first time. Any other time he would have gotten his butt handed to him for such a way of waking him up and the only way he would be getting home was through the hospital. But now the temperamental teenager, which, Casey thought he knew way too good, didn’t even move. Which ran counter to everything Casey knew about Raphael before. And so the boy came to the only logical conclusion about what he just saw.

“Done for?” squealed Casey weakly, helplessly looking at April over his shoulder. She just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Haven’t changed a bit since I agreed to be your math tutor, I see.”

“What else do you want me to conclude?” he frowned, gesturing at Raph, who was still serenely snoring.

“I’m more interested in finding the rest.” said April, ignoring his friend’s eyes, round as baby seal’s. She headed towards the dojo. Casey obediently followed.

Leo was quietly sitting under the bonsai that has seen better days, all thanks to the winter. Sitting and snoring. At that moment even April couldn’t say no to succumbing into the blessed stupor, knowing perfectly well that the valiant leader of the turtles never falls asleep while meditating. Well, never fell asleep, up until now. Casey, eager to prove his point, came up to the master of katana and slightly poked his cheek. Unlike Raph, Leo, ever so slightly, reacted, shook his head and, losing his delicate balance, crashed onto the floor. Though that didn’t seem to cause him to leave Morpheus’s place. He had fallen into a position similar to his green eyed brother’s and started snoring. Casey looked back at April with a stare that just begged for some ominous musical accompaniment.

“Red, there’s some terrible virus going on in the lair. Let’s get out of here!”

“Cut it out!” said April with annoyance in her voice, even though she started getting suspicious too. “Let’s check the rooms”

One of the four missing brothers has been found there. The brother was called Mikey, and neither Casey nor April expected to find him in such position.

Mikey barricaded himself in a dozen of blankets and pillows and got lost in them, making his nose the only visible part of him. And unlike his brothers, his breathing was so weightless, that April had to place her hand on Mikey’s plastron to make sure he still belonged to this world. Behind it, very quietly and unbelievably slowly, the turtle’s heart was beating.

“Okay, now I’m really starting to worry,” muttered April. 

Casey, who stood behind her, nodded.

Leaving Mikey to the pleasant company of blankets, the couple went back to the main room.

“Are they trapped in their dreams again? It was just like that the last time, we couldn’t wake them up or get any kind of reaction out of them. What do you think, Red?” asked Casey with a concerned voice and taking a look at sleeping Raph. She shook her head.

“We haven’t found Donnie, let’s not jump to any conclusions just yet. Let’s go.”

They headed for the laboratory.

“Donnie!” happily exclaimed April, rushing up to the woozy turtle, who barely managed to stay in his chair. He sat in front of his computer, phlegmatically typing something. He was covered with a fluffy blanket, with a cup of coffee in his hand.

“April?” said Donnie slowly in that inimitable tone, on the edge between curiosity and sluggish indifference. 

“What do you have going on around here, eh?” wondered Casey.

“What do we have going on?” Donnie didn’t seem to quite get what he was talking about. Casey growled.

“Sorry I didn’t elaborate” said Casey in a singsong fashion. “Perhaps Your Cleverness isn’t aware, but it seems like a plague that affects mutant turtles is raging in the lair.

“Why?” he blinked, still not understanding what Casey wanted with him. His nerves were starting to boil, while Donnie took another sip of coffee from his cup with cheerful Everything will be great! written on it.

Donatello’s philosophical silence filled the room. Teenagers were patiently waiting for his answer. Finally, the turtle jerked, as if he was smacked, which indicated that he was ready to talk.

“Guys. Been meaning to ask - what the heck do you go to school for? And what do you do there?” The end of the sentence couldn’t be heard over the sound of Casey’s body hitting the floor. April squinted her right eye in a rather weird way.

“I’m sorry?” said April politely. Don put his cup on the table with an audible thud and turned to face them.

“Well, do you like biology?” 

“Yes… for the most part.” Kunoichi was bravely answering Donnie’s incoherent questions, since Casey was out of commission, hysterically rolling on the floor and not even making any attempts to get up.

“I can’t quite believe that! Lesson “reptiles”!” harshly said Donnie, while Casey, who had decided to get up, fell back down, cursing his poor judgement.

“Dude, you just reminded me of our biology teacher...” mumbled Casey, making himself comfortable on his temporary rookery.

“Can you feel the temperature in our lair?” Donnie continued with his questions, sipping his coffee that has gone cold, and frowning. April seemed to finally start seeing where this was going. Casey kept staring at the stains of acid on the floor. They failed to realize that they didn’t even think about taking their clothes off inside the frozen lair.

“And how do you think reptiles react to cold?” he asked straight. April made a quiet “oh” and Casey rolled his eyes, trying to remember. Finally, a chaotic hand gesture let everyone present in the room know that all those years in school were not spent in vain.

“So, you guys… are dormant?” Casey tried to muffle his laugh.

Then he gave in and started laughing. It was only for the fact that his laughter was filled with relief that Donnie didn’t end him with his optimistic cup.

“Be glad that 50 percent of our DNA is human.” He said grimly. “Otherwise you would have learned that in the beginning of the winter.”

“So, cold doesn’t affect you as much because you’re mutants?” Asked Casey after his laughter had died down. Don stared at him grimly, his look full of despair.

“Came to that conclusion on your own?” A fair question followed. Casey, even if he caught the glimpse of sarcasm in his words, let it slide. April was looking at the thumbs up on Donnie’s cup with confusion in her eyes.

“Say, how much coffee have you had? You don’t seem to be hitting your keyboard with your face.” Casey made a comeback, proving that his integrated sarcasm detector was still in order.

“More like how often…” April added, she was very concerned for his friend’s health. 

Don, attempting to fall asleep while sitting, jerked awake at the girl’s question.

“Mmm… five cups I think?...” 

“How many?!” Casey repeated his question squinting a little, as April strongly took the cup from her friend’s hands and hid it in her bag.

“Noo-o-o…” Dreary said Don, reaching out for his precious. But the red haired Kunoichi was adamant.

At this exact moment, the door of the laboratory opened, putting the wondrous creature, also known as Michelangelo, before the world.

“‘ello” He had greeted the public briefly and disappeared from their field of view. 

“Hey, where are you going?” Donnie called his brother. He turned around, staggering a bit, and looked around the room, noticing, a bit surprised, Casey sitting on the floor.

“I mean… it’s cold…” Mikey excused himself. “Water in the shower… waaarm”

“Get out of my sight, peasant,” Donnie said leniently. Mikey obeyed immediately.

On his way to the shower Mikey dropped his blanket onto Raphael. He changed his fetal position to a sleeping position of a normal being.

One way or another, Casey and April decided that cold made the agile ninja turtles change to regular turtles with slow reflexes, nonchalant faces and indifference to everything around them.

When Leo had steered out of the dojo with an acceptable speed, hope arose in the teenagers, hope that not everything was lost just yet. But after the leader walked straight into the nearest wall, it changed to the bitter realization - the master of katana didn’t see where he was going, his legs were probably on autopilot.

After waking up from vicious intrusion of a brick into his personal space, the participant of the incident dumbfoundedly scanned the world around him and attempted to wave to Casey, who puffed his cheeks. And kept walking. Who knows where to. Who knows what for. Probably to find warmth and happiness in his personal life. 

A moment later, Raph woke up. Asked, whose blanket was that that proudly rested on top of him just now, and having received the answer, set off to find the owner. He found him, as anticipated, in the bathroom. Hysterical screech, and obviously not Raph’s, commemorated this momentous event.

“Someone died. Need to go and pay respects.” Having decided that the excuse was good enough, Donnie vanished from the laboratory and, stumbling over his own “cloak”, disappeared in the bathroom, which in a blink of an eye had become the epicenter of events in the lair. Leo, being “not like everyone else”, refrained from visiting the bathroom and, after trying to find his room, which was more intense than “Finding Nemo” and “Finding Dory” mixed together, crashed to where Raphael was previously laying.

Donnie realised, that there wasn’t supposed to be pandemonium in the bathroom in the script (well, that is, unless it was morning, when in large families like the turtles’ a bloody battle breaks out for the spot in front of the mirror, while everyone are trying to brush their teeth and make themselves look presentable overall) and hurriedly made his way back to the laboratory to finish his things, letting Casey and April enter the cloister of toothpastes, soaps and shampoos to see the cutest picture.

Raphael sat by the tub, which was filled to the brim, with his hand in it and his eyes closed in ecstasy. Mikey was in the tub itself and didn’t seem to mind that rather odd company.

“We walked into a sauna by mistake.” Casey tried to make a joke, noticing with resentment that the turtles, being in bliss because of the warmth, didn’t pay his words any mind. April just shrugged. The guys looked really adorable right now. But Casey didn’t like this state of affairs. At all.

“Hey, harem, sultan’s here!” announced Casey straightening and moving his beanie a bit to the side. Raph jerked and, muttering something that kids aren’t supposed to hear to his best friend, went back to slumber. Mikey opened one eye and looked at his visitors.

“Harem’s empty, come back later,” he answered pronouncing every word loud and clear, making Casey lose his spirit and April - bend over from laughter.

“No fair, I’m not playing like that,” said Casey confused, proceeding to look at the towels like they were the most interesting thing on Earth.

“Mikey, the water’s gonna go cold,” Donnie, who was passing by, warned him, sincerely hoping that his intent to get another cup of coffee is gonna escape April’s notice. “You better get out!”

“Fine…” Mikey started to lift himself off and immediately fell back into the tub. “Hey! Guys, if you don’t wanna go out, at least turn around! Have some respect for the turtle!”

“Oh, sorry, Mikey.” April pushed out laughing Casey and closed the door. Raph yawned lazily.

“What haven’t we seen there.” 

“Alright, you can stay,” agreed Mikey, reaching for the bright orange towel. Raph, having discovered that the tub was now free, proceeded to put his other hand in it. Halfway there he looked at his brother. 

“You can get in whole for all I care.” Said Mikey not even waiting for the question to be asked.

“Nah, don’t wanna,” answered Raph sluggishly.

“Rough winter this year.” Leo complained to Casey who sat alongside him.

“Tell me about it.” 

“But it’s manageable under the blanket”

“Right…”

“Alight, gentlemen, today’s agenda - frozen lair. I have a proposition you can’t not like…”

“Tight hug?” half-smiled, half-yawned Mikey and leaned on Raph. They became really close while they had been in the bathroom and Mikey’s status had gone from “annoying little bastard” to “pretty cool little brother”.

“Okay, that too.” April gave up. “I looked up the forecast, and I’m delighted to bring you the good news: the cold is going away in about three, four days!”

“What news?” Mikey woke up. The status “pretty cool little brother” changed to “Dumb, but still a brother”.

“Warmth’s coming, Mikey! Yeey!” Donnie was next to get excited. Leo nodded in satisfaction.

“What was your proposition, April?”

“Since the warmth is coming, but we still have to wait a few days, I say you move to us while it’s still cold! Our flat is big and my dad doesn’t mind.

“Sleepover?” Mikey perked up. “I wanna!”

“You sure we’re not gonna disturb you?” Carefully asked Donnie. Being able to sleep normally in a warm room was tempting, but he didn’t like to impose. The girl just waved her hand, as to say “Nah.”

“Come on, guys! I’m gonna come over, we can play some board games!” Enthusiastically exclaimed Casey and then added “Remember the good old days…” a bit more quietly.

The turtles looked at each other and then nodded.

“Alright, April.”

The fluffy snow was slowly falling down on the other side of the window. Nothing presaged the upcoming blizzard. The frost was pinching noses and cheeks of the brave people who dared to go outside. The red haired girl sighed, closed the curtains and turned around to see the four turtles peacefully sleeping under the blankets, with some hot chocolate on their relaxed, blissful faces. For some reason April knew that the next few days that the brothers were gonna spend in her flat, would be filled with a lot of wondourus, interesting, spectacular and, without a doubt, fun things.

Although… was she really new to it?

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading.  
> I'd like to express my immense gratitude to Jelly who helped me big time with this one. As you might've noticed, that's a Russian fanfic translated into English by a Russian and plus it was my first experience so everything that might've gone wrong would have if not for Jelly. I owe you one.


End file.
